Thursday, September 4, 1986/The Battalion/Page 3B
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PRESENTS
I TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — The
|§! doctors at Tijuana General Hos-
Ebital are among the best-trained in
^lexico, but for want of basic inedi-
lal supplies like surgical gowns and
■vringes, they are practicing little
nedicine.
From the outside, Tijuana Gen
eral is eight stories of concrete and
lass, among the most modern
Buildings in the developing Tijuana
KRiver area.
|fl Inside, however, only emergen-
Bies are handled, and some 40 pa-
Bents a day are turned away. Two
I: llle-threatening emergencies at once
Bresent a dilemma because the hos-
Bital has only one working monitor
Bor vital signs.
I Onlv two oxygen valves work in
an d r, tpe emergencv room, and autopsies
inspired | Jt . performed because refnger-
ars belcrtBtors for pr<
Fanfare :B en .
erving bodies are bn
tie. "We
bB Private hospitals treat those who
tBan pay or are covered by social se-
sBurity, but the federally funded hos-
iBital is the only source of medical
.Hire for the teeming border city’s es-
Hmated 1 million poor.
It is also the hospital where Amer-
Kans injured in accidents in north-
■rn Baja California are taken.
■
■H
Tijuana General has laeen vastly
bdersupplied since it opened four
ears ago. But the problems have
grown worse as a series of peso de
valuations and falling oil prices have
lunk Mexico deeper into debt.
I “It’s tough to see a patient that
Bleeds treatment and not be able to
Bio anything,” said Dr. Jaime Perez
Mendez, a urologist and secretary of
the hospital’s medical association.
Until mid-June, doctors brought
their own supplies to the hospital.
Because of this, Perez said, the gov
ernment in Mexico City paid only lip
service to repeated requests for
Two life-threatening
emergencies at once pre
sent a dilemma because
the hospital has only one
working monitor for vital
signs.
equipment and supply requests.
When the doctors stopped donating
from their private practices, elective
operations and consultations were
halted.
The Mexican press called the ac
tion a strike, but Perez denied that.
“We are going to wait until the
equipment is here,” Perez said. “It’s
not that we don’t want to work. We
don't have the equipment to work.”
Only half of the 250 beds are in
service. A shortage of orderlies and
nurses forces medical students to
move patients from floor to floor.
Medical students from Mexico
City are sent to Tijuana General for
training.
“In two years, they are going to be
out working like general surgeons,”
Perez said. “But they are not general
surgeons. They do not have the
right training because we do not
have the equipment.”
Throughout the
story is repeated.
hospital, the
MiiiiimiiiiMiiiiiinwm
In the intensive care unit. Dr.
Jorge Astorga has little to do but see
that bedding is changed and patients
are made as comfortable as possible.
The one monitor for vital signs in
the ward is outdated and doesn’t
work.
Tijuana General has a CAT scan
unit and an ultrasound device, both
donated by San Diego hospitals, but
neither works and the hospital has
no money to get them fixed.
“We are getting help (from the
United States),” Perez said. “But
they send us things we don’t need.”
Perez stopped short of calling Ti
juana General a dumping ground
for such equipment, but he said he
resents that the American hospitals
receive a tax write-off for donating
unusable equipment.
“It’s not what we need,” he said.
“We need the basics.”
Acoustic Guitar/Piano Player and Singer
in .a/wT^
behind the MSC Poet Office
September 18, 1986 S.OOpm
Tickets Available At MSC Box Office And At The Door
$2.00
"age ol
nth an
cans a month are hospitalized at Ti
juana General, said Charles Neary,
vice consul in the American Citizen
Services section of the American
Consulate in Tijuana.
Americans are afraid because they
are in a strange environment, he
said.
“They often refuse treatment and
say they want to go home,” Neary
said.
Through an agreement with Mex
ican officials, he said, 90 percent of
injured Americans are returned to
the United States without hassle.
‘Bridge to nowhere’surprises Oregon city
and Poi
pes. Emersi
u: in the 'I
says, “Most
,■ boring ani
■an't possfcl
Mine use I
1 lots of di
-s drums. I
I ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) — Critics
llubbed it “the bridge to nowhere," a
fc24 million, 4.1-mile boondoggle
Ihat would drain the pocketbooks of
tlregon and Washington taxpavers
lor decades.
I Twenty years later, however,
inore than a million vehicles an-
lually traverse the Astoria Bridge
over the Columbia River to reach
somewhere, and the toll span is well
(on its way to paying for itself.
The bridge on U.S. 101 is re-
arded today as an important eco-
homic asset to this recession-plagued
town at the mouth of the Columbia,
hnd to the smaller towns to the north
that dot the Long Beach peninsula
in southwest Washington.
"It has proven to be much more
successful than they expected,” says
Jean Hallaux, who retired recently
as a city planner for Astoria. “It’s
hard to criticize now.”
The bridge, which filled the last
gap in the scenic coastal highway be
tween Mexico and Canada, replaced
two ferries that slowly carried traffic
between Astoria and Point Ellice,
Wash.
The span was called the bridge to
nowhere because it didn’t connect
Astoria to any like-size town on the
north side of the river. The nearest
town as big as Astoria, population
9,800, is Aberdeen, Wash., about 60
miles north.
The moniker didn’t sit well with
most Astorians or residents of the
Long Beach peninsula, many of
whom saw their quiet coastal towns
as unrealized tourist destinations.
Today, tourism has surpassed
timber, fishing and shipping as the
leading industry in Astoria during
the summer, thanks in large part to
the bridge, Bugas maintains.
In addition to more tourists, it has
brought more Washingtonians, who
are attracted by Oregon’s lack of a
sales tax.
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w w
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oney Savi
ecials of th
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lachit 165
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PIZZA DELIVERS
NORTH 846-3768
Campus, N&E of Campus, Westwood, La Brisa
SOUTH 696-0234
South of campus, S.W. Pkwy, Hwy 30,
Emerald Forest/Raintree, Southwood Valley
CHANELLO’S
Order two 12” pizzas and the one
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Coupon includes approprate taxes. Not valid with any other special offer.
VOID 10 Sept. 86